Lost Skills
by broadwaybear
Summary: Mariam's blading skills have gone downhill since battling Max. She's sick of her teamate's taunting, and runs away, thinking she's lost all worth. The boys enlist the help of the Bladebreakers to find her. Will they make it before she hurts herself?
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own beyblade.

**Lost Skills**

"You haven't won a beybattle in three weeks. Did you know that, Miriam?"

"Shut up Dunga, I've just been a little off my game lately." she shot back.

"Oh, please." Dunga goaded, "That's the oldest excuse in the book. Besides you rarely win battles anyway, this is just the first time you've lost every bey-battle for three weeks in a row."

"Oh, shove off." Miriam retorted.

"Ya' know, sis', he is right, you hardly ever win battles since we lost to the Bladebreakers." Joseph added.

"Joseph, do me a favor. Next time I ask for your opinion be sure you _don't have _one" Miriam snapped, getting fed up with this.

"Cool it, all of you." Ozuma cut in, "Get off Miriam's back, so she's been a little off the last couple months, it doesn't mean she won't ever get her game back." he added with a smirk.

"Ozuma!" Miriam shouted, "I expected it from the other two, but you? You're all such jerks!" And with that she ran out of the warehouse they were currently staying in.

After losing to the Bladebreakers the Saint Shields hadn't been given a mission for several months, so they just stayed in Japan. Ozuma actually seemed better than before and the other two hadn't changed, but Miriam? Miriam was different ever since battling with Max, the rest of the team either didn't notice, or figured it was 'a girl thing'.

As much as she hated to admit, it was also true what Dunga said about her 'blading skills. They had gone seriously downhill since battling Max. Now every time she bey-battled she thought about him, and what it would have been like to battle him as a friend, which threw her game off _completely. _She hated him for that, without 'blading, she was nothing.

_So now that I can't blade I am nothing._ She thought, _so what's the point of me being here at all?_

She took Sharkrash out of her pocket. _One more try_, she thought, _then__ I'll make my decision. _

So she tried one more time. She launched Sharkrash and sent him flying through the air attempting to dislodge a rock at the bottom of a nearby pile of stones. The loss of that rock would send the entire pile crumbling, but it was small and would be hard to hit, so she knew it would be a good test for her.

Her blade got closer, and closer, and closer. It was gonna hit! Suddenly the blade turned a little bit and missed completely. Damn! How had she missed that?

She tried again with the same effect. In fact she tried three more times with out hitting the rock.

_That's it then._ She thought, _I used to be able to do something like that in my sleep. I guess I _have_ lost my edge. Maybe it's just time for me to go._

So, with one last look back at the warehouse housing the only family she had ever known, she turned and left, never to return.

A.N.) _So_ whadya' think? I hope to make it a three shot, so watch for more chapters!


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

"Guys, I'm getting kind of worried about her. It's been three hours." Ozuma said, regarding the missing Miriam. 

"Don't worry about her," Joseph said nonchalantly, "she's probably just blowing of steam."

"It's not like her to stay out this late. She knows how dangerous it can be. 'Specially for a girl." Ozuma replied.

"Relax, Ozuma," Dunga assured him, "she's probably out practicing, not that it'll do her any good." Joseph and Dunga both laughed.

"Knock it off you two, that's the attitude that drove her away!" Ozuma snapped.

"Oh come off it." Joseph said back, getting tired of his friends attitude, "If I remember correctly she ran off 'cause _you_ were teasing her, she's used to us doing it." 

"I know, it's all my fault, now can we please go look for her?" 

"Wait till morning!" Dunga said, "She'll probably be back by then anyway, and she'll only get madder if we go out and find her."

"I guess you're right." Ozuma replied, still not very happy about it, but knowing his friends wouldn't do much about it at 12:00 at night.

---------------------------------------The Next Morning--------------------------------------------------

"Wake up Dunga1" Joseph yelled.

"Huh? What? Hey, back off shrimp, what's the deal? It's like six in the morning!' Dunga cried out.

"Miriam didn't come back last night. Ozuma went to look for her and told me to wake you up and start looking. We meet back here at lunch, unless one of us found her, then we come back right away. To tell you the truth even I'm worried. She's never done this before." Joseph replied.

"Yeah, that is unlike her." Dunga agreed. "Let's go!" 

They all spent the morning searching, and to no avail. They met back at the warehouse, hoping the other had found something.

"Any sign of her?" Ozuma asked hopefully.

"No." they both answered.

"Then let's go back out."

"Ozuma, wait!" Joseph called out, "This is getting us no where, she's been gone for a while, and we have nowhere else to look. We need help."

"And who do you want to ask?" Ozuma asked angrily, "We can't go to the police! They'd put us in foster homes for not having parents with us. Or we'd get sent to juve or something!"

"Obviously, not the police!" Joseph cried, "Let's just ask the only other people we know here!" 

"What are you talking about, Joseph?" Dunga asked.

"The Bladebreakers, of course!"

"The Bladebreakers? I doubt they'd help us, and aren't they still in Russia?" Ozuma questioned, seriously doubting this idea.

"No, they got back over a week ago. And I bet they would help us, it's totally obvious Max likes her, and they know the area. They could also tell us if there's any creeps around here that would want to pick up a girl during the night."

"I don't know, Joseph" Ozuma replied.

"It's better than running around with out any idea where to go. At least we'll have more man-power." Dunga said, rationed, which was strange, for him.

"Fine, let's go find the Bladebreakers." Ozuma consented.

------------------------------------------------At the Dojo---------------------------------------------

"Go, Dragoon!"

"Go Dranzer!"

Kai and Tyson were having a heated battle in the backyard, with Max and Ray watching from the sidelines, while Dizzi and Kenny took careful notes on the battle.

"You're goin' down Kai!" Tyson jeered.

"Don't count me out yet!" he shot back.

"Man, those two are really getting into it." Max said to Ray, "I hope they don't hurt anybody."

Ray laughed, "Yeah, they really tore up the yard during their last battle." He looked around at the damage that had been done yesterday, consisting of destroyed trees and a lot of other debris, including scorch marks on the walls.

"Hey, guys." came a voice from in the woods, "can you hold the battle for a sec?" 

Kai and Tyson called their blades back simultaneously, "Who's there?" Tyson called out, putting his blade back into his launcher.

"What don't you recognize me?" the voice said, faking being insulted, and three figures steeped out of the shadows. Everyone present, bar Kai who simply had a startled look for a couple seconds, gasped in shock, it was Ozuma, Joseph, and Dunga. 

"What are you doing here, if you want a battle you came to the right place." Kai said. 

"We don't want a battle." Joseph answered.

"Then what do you want?" Max asked, "and where's Miriam?"

"I was getting to that, before I was interrupted." Ozuma said, "She's gone and we need your help finding her." 

"Why don't you just go to the police?" Tyson asked.

"Hello, and say what? Yeah our friend Miriam is lost, can we get some help finding her? Our parents? No they're in another country. Where are we staying? In an old warehouse, in the woods." Joseph replied sarcastically, "Do you know how fast we'd be shoved into an orphanage?"

"Well _sorry_, why come to us then?" Tyson asked.

"You're the only ones we know around here. And you know the layout of the place, you know where someone might go." Ozuma replied.

" 'Might go', so she's not just missing, she ran away." Ray stated. 

"We don't know for sure. She left last night and wasn't back this morning." Dunga answered.

"Why'd she leave, she never came across to me as the kind of person who'd up and run for no reason." Kenny asked.

"Well, that's kind of why we're worried. There was an argument and it was kinda' the three of us against her. She got mad and left." Joseph replied nervously.

"So in other words, you guys pissed her off and she ran away." Kai said bluntly. 

"Sort of." Joseph mumbled.

"Then what makes you think she wants to come back?" Kai asked.

"That's why we want to find her!" Ozuma said angrily, "So we can at least apologize and find out if she's 

safe or not, and if she wants to come back! So will you help us or not?" 

The others hesitated except for Max, "Yes, absolutely!" he said confidently. 

"Hey, can we talk about this for a sec, buddy?" Tyson asked.

"What's there to talk about you guys? She could be in trouble! I realize we're not the greatest friends with the Saint Shields, but still. Could you live with yourself if she gets hurt, or even dies because _you_ didn't want to help her?" Max exclaimed. 

"Well, when you put it that way, I guess I don't have much of a choice." Ray agreed.

"Yeah, I guess you can count me in." Tyson volunteered.

"Us, too!" Kenny and Dizzi said together.

"How about it Kai?" Max asked imploringly.

"Whatever, it's not like there's anything else to do since you'll all be leaving."

"Alright! You guys have the official help of the Bladebreakers!" Max cried, "Where do we start?" 

--------------------------------------The Following Morning----------------------------------------------

They had spent the rest of the day searching the surrounding area for any signs of the missing girl, but no sign had been found of her. Kai was starting to get bored and might want to give up the search soon, the others weren't much better, but Max simply got more frantic with every minute.

He would _never_ give up, not until they knew were she was! She couldn't just disappear! She must've left some sort of trail.

So he went back to the door she had left out of. He looked out and saw a clear trail leading to the forest and decided to follow that, seeing it was the _only_ clear trail. When he reached the edge of the woods he noticed that some sticks in the underbrush were broken, like someone had walked through it. It was a long shot that it had been Miriam, probably just one of the boys, but it was better than nothing.

Walking through the small path, he soon came to a small clearing, it was sheltered by trees, but the thing that drew his attention was the small pile of rocks near the edge of the clearing. The rocks themselves were normal rocks, but surrounding them were scratch marks, marks that could have been made a beyblade! 

It would be pure luck if the blade was even Miriam's, heck, it was even a long shot that if it _had_ been made by her that she had done it before she left, but still it was all he had to go on, so he would take it. 

Looking around he noticed more trampled branches, and a piece of what looked like Sharkrash! _Wow,_ Max 

thought, _she must have been really mad if she was this clumsy and broke part of her blade! _Thinking over the argument she had with Dunga, Max was begging to think that she probably left on her own. Which meant she was probably as angry with herself as much as with Dunga. And when she was mad she tended to do crazy things. _Oh God, _ Max prayed silently, _let me find her before she hurts herself!_ He was so worried that he just followed the trail, he didn't even think about telling anyone else.

A.N.) Hope you liked this chapter! Please review.  



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